Enter London Mayor Boris Johnson, who believed his cat had been attacked by a fox in his north London neighbourhood. He was so enraged, Boris said, he considered using his rifle to dispatch the offending critter to fox heaven.

"This will cause massive unpopularity and I don't care," the Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying. "If people want to get together to form the fox hounds of Islington I'm all for it."

So this is a good idea and there's no way anyone's going to get mad about it, because if there's one thing British people are indifferent about it's animals.

"We can only assume the mayor is joking with this prepostorous suggestion," Joe Duckworth, who heads the League Against Cruel Sports, an anti-hunting group, told Metro. "He cannot seriously be suggesting that packs of dogs should be allowed to hunt wildlife through the city or that people should be able to freely walk around with dangerous firearms."

He probably wasn't serious. (But then, with Boris, who knows.) Aside from all that, wading -- even jokingly -- into the fox-hunting issue is also a bad idea. Foxes have fans, and hunting with dogs was outlawed by Tony Blair's Labour government. Despite rumblings from hunt supporters, it's unlikely to be repealed.

But still. The image of a pack of red-clad horsemen galloping down Streatham High Street or through Oxford Circus is pretty funny. Boris does it again. Tally ho.

Jennifer Quinn is a foreign affairs and investigative reporter at the Star. As a journalist with the Associated Press, based in London, she wrote extensively about British politics. Follow her on Twitter @JQStar.

06/11/2013

A file photo of a leatherback turtle at a Sydney aquarium. (Reuters photo)

Was a Costa Rican environmentalist killed because he was trying
to save eggs of Leatherback sea turtles from poachers?

So suggest reports from that country.

On Friday, Jairo Mora, 26, was travelling with four female volunteers to Nueve Millas, a remote beach off the Caribbean
coast near the town of Mohín
where Leatherback sea turtles, a critically endangered species, nest on the
surrounding beaches during this time to lay eggs. The five planned to patrol
several miles of sand to protect the nests from poachers, who were stealing
eggs at night.

Hours later, Mora was dead and the four women would be tied
up alone in a nearby abandoned house.

It’s a story that has sent ripples across the country, alarming environmentalists.

Leatherback sea turtles are one of the largest reptiles on Earth and can
be found on beaches along Costa Rica’s
Caribbean and Pacific coasts.

According to reports, the five stopped that night to remove an
obstacle in their path — a tree trunk that blocked a road not far from the
beach. Mora, reportedly, walked over to move it and was suddenly surrounded by four
masked men. They locked him in the back of a car and took the women to the
empty house.

When the women managed to break free, they walked to town and
alerted the police. Authorities found Mora’s body next to the empty truck; he
had been struck with a blunt object of his head, he had no clothes on.

Aimee Leslie, a Costa Rican who oversees the World Wildlife
Foundation’s marine turtle efforts, told ABC Univision that Mora’s death is a
critical point for conservation in the country.

“Now it has become a national security issue.”

Raveena Aulakh is the Star's environment reporter. She is intrigued by climate change and its impact,
now and long-term, and wildlife. Follow her on Twitter @raveenaaulakh

06/10/2013

A white rhino in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. (MCT photo)

Can African rhinos survive in Chinese rainforests?

More importantly, can rhinos survive in a country with a
lucrative rhino horn trade?

As seven rhinos await their release into the wild, these are some
of the questions that critics are asking. The animals arrived under a blaze of
publicity earlier this year at the Pu'er National Forest Park in the hills of Yunnan province in southwest China. They are among more than 150
rhinos brought to China
between 2007 and 2012. The transported rhinos are between the ages of 6 and 8.

An employee of the Mekog Group, which is creating thousands of
acres of forestland into a national park, told AFP that the dream is that the
rhinos breed.

The project is about scientific research, he added.

But experts say rhinos, who are used to grasslands, will not
survive in rainforests.

“These animals will just not survive in a rainforest-type
environment,” said Tom Milliken, a rhino expert with the conservation group
Traffic. “We have concerns about nutrition and their overall ability to cope.
If they don't have supplementary food, they could starve.”

This scheme comes as poaching of African rhinos booms. It has been
blamed on high demand for rhino horn-based traditional medicine products across
Southeast Asia and China.
According to reports recent prices in Vietnam, the main market for rhino
horn, make the powder more expensive than gold.

At present in South
Africa, poachers are killing two rhinos
every day on an average.

It is estimated that there are around 20,000 white rhinos left
with the majority in South Africa
and Namibia.
There are also an estimated 5,000 black rhinos still alive but in South Africa,
poachers are killing two rhinos every day

Trade in rhino horn is prohibited but the ban is boosting illegal
poaching by constricting the supply of rhino horn and driving up the price: in
1993, a kilogram sold for around $4,700 but in 2012, it was selling for as much
as $65,000.

Raveena Aulakh is the Star's environment reporter. She is intrigued by climate change and its impact,
now and long-term, and wildlife. Follow her on Twitter @raveenaaulakh

06/07/2013

In this Toronto Star file photo, kids pat Celeste, a dog, who worked at Therapeutic Paws.

The bond between dogs and humans is ancient and it is enduring. And
it is unique. They are an intrinsic part of our lives.

But we know that, we’ve heard that before.

Now Lindsay Ellsworth, a doctoral candidate in animal sciences at
the Washington State University,
is working on a study that demonstrates how dog-interaction activities improve
mood among teenagers in drug and alcohol treatment programs.

According to reports, on Friday afternoons, four dogs from the
Spokane Humane Society take a field trip to Excelsior Youth Centre where a
group of teenage boys wait for them. The participants then help brush, feed and
play with the dogs.

“We found one of the most robust effects of interacting with the
dogs was increased joviality,” Ellsworth was quoted as saying. “Some of the
words the boys used to describe their moods after working with the dogs were
'excited,' 'energetic' 'and happy.'”

It’s believed to be the first of its kind of study.

The way the study works is simple: Once a week, Ellsworth divides
eight participants into two groups. One group plays pool, video games or
basketball. The other group interacts with shelter dogs for about an hour.

Before it all starts, the participants identify 60 mood
descriptors on a scale of one to five on what is known as the PANAS-X, a
self-reporting method organizational psychologists use to scale and study
emotion. Later, the participants fill out the same scale.

Not surprisingly, those who spent time with the dogs not only
showed an increase in joviality but also positive affect, and overall sadness
decreased.

“I was surprised, during the trial period, how calm the boys were
around the dogs and at how outbursts and hyperactivity diminished,” she said in
an interview. “It was something you could observe like night and day.”

That’s dog love for you.

Raveena Aulakh is the Star's environment reporter. She is intrigued by climate change and its impact,
now and long-term, and wildlife. Follow her on Twitter @raveenaaulakh

(That's a joke about being floored, not about being bored. Oar we on the same page? Read on.)

Mysterious Regalecus glesne, the giant oarfish, is the world's longest bony fish, with unconfirmed reports of specimens 17 metres long. Many believe the oarfish is responsible for legends of sea serpents.

But because they live in the deep ocean, the life of the oarfish has been almost as mysterious as that of the giant squid. Like Architeuthis, impressively gigantic dead oarfish have washed up onshoreor been captured by fishermen. But underwater sightings are rare.

This week, a team of American oceanographers has announced that a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) captured rare live video of a giant oarfish in its natural environment. News of the video was first reported on Deepseanews.com, sending oarfish nerds into ecstasies.

As that second tweet mentions, the video gets good about halfway through -- I personally recommend the five minute mark.

The oceanographers are part of the SERPENT project, a collaboration with offshore oil and gas companies. The companies make their state-of-the-art ROVs available to scientists, and they also train their own operators to be on the lookout for unusual creatures, according to the project website.

The video posted above was captured in the Gulf of Mexico by an ROV being operated by a company taking part in the natural resources damage assessment after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The ROV was returning to the surface when its operator spotted the oarfish. It filmed the fish at 62 metres deep for 10 minutes.

The new findings consist of five different videos captured between 2008 and 2011 in the northern Gulf of Mexico from, at the deepest, 492 metres below the surface.

06/06/2013

Last week, the Star wrote a story about the fears of a conservation agency, Wildlands League, that there will be serious repercussions to the habitats of endangered species if Ontario bends over backwards to accommodate industries as it embarked on “modernization of approvals” under the Endangered Species Act.

The story was in the paper on Wednesday. By Thursday, environmental groups emailed to say they believed a cabinet decision was imminent.

A decision did come down — quietly on Friday — and eNGOs say it was just what they feared: the cabinet approved sweeping exemptions for industry under the Endangered Species Act.

They say the new exemptions “lower the standard of protection for endangered plants and animals across many industries, including forestry, pits and quarries, renewable energy, hydro, mining, infrastructure development, waste management, and commercial and residential development.”

And that is not all: Nature Ontario, Sierra Club Canada, David Suzuki Foundation and Earthroots came together for a news release in which they said that the decision also “dramatically reduce government oversight of activities affecting Ontario’s lakes, rivers, forests and wildlife.”

“The scope of the exemptions is appalling,” said Amber Ellis, executive director of Earthroots. “The government has caved to industry and turned a deaf ear to all who believe in society’s duty to protect endangered species.”

The news release says among the exemptions is a special 5-year exemption for the forestry sector, which leaves forest-dwelling species like the threatened woodland caribou out in the cold.

The woodland caribou has already lost about 50 per cent of its historic range in Ontario and continues to decline, due to industrial activity, say experts.

“It is our worst fear. Make a law then gut it. Even a great law can be castrated,” said Janet Sumner of Wildlands League.

Raveena Aulakh is the Star's environment reporter. She is intrigued by climate change and its impact, now and long-term, and wildlife. Follow her on Twitter @raveenaaulakh

05/30/2013

An unnamed Greater Bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus), cub
nestles with its mother Sorja at the Besancon Zoo in eastern France on Thursday.. There are estimated currently less than 600 of the species left in
the wild. (SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/Getty Images)

05/29/2013

Childern interact with dolphins at the Georgia Aquarium in this file photo. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)

A couple from Charlotte, N.C., is gearing up for the birth of their first child — in water, around dolphins.

Yes, you read that right.

The Charlotte Observer reports Heather and Adam Barrington travelled last month to Pohoa, Hawaii, where they want baby Bodhi to be welcomed into the world in July with assistance from dolphins.

The Barringtons are staying with Star Newland, founder of The Sirius Institute, a consortium with the purpose of “dolphinizing” Earth, reports the paper.

In the weeks leading up to the birth, the couple plans to spend time in the water, forming a connection with a dolphin pod.

The idea of dolphin-assisted birth hugely appeals to them.

“It’s total relaxation for the mother,” Adam told the paper. “Dolphins are very intelligent and healing which in turn calms mother and baby for the whole process,” added Heather.

The Charlotte Observer story says living in harmony with the Earth is a way of life for the Barringtons. Among other things, they have travelled across the country, staying with friends, living in and out of their car and picking up odd jobs or doing trades when they need money or food.

Not everyone is going ga-ga over their choice of birthing.

Christie Wilcox, a science writer, wrote a scathing piece about it in Discover magazine. She writes dolphins are “wild animals and they are known to do some pretty terrible things.”

“Look at how their treat their women. Male dolphins are aggressive, horny devils. Males will kidnap and gang-rape females with their prehensile penises, using alliances of several males to keep females isolated from the rest of the group.”

She makes a compelling argument against dolphin-assisted birth.

Back to dolphins, dolphin-assisted birth may sound unconventional but not more than what some other researchers have said. For instance, a W5 episode on CTV focused on dolphin therapy for children with autism a few months ago. Like dolphin-assisted birth, it had its believers and critics.

Raveena Aulakh is the Star’s environment reporter. She is intrigued by climate change and its impact, now and long-term, and wildlife. Follow her on Twitter @raveenaaulakh

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